Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Dolores Podbevšek Plemeniti, Marketing Director, Delo, SOF President
This year the Slovenian Advertising Festival marks a quarter of a century, and since change is the only constant, the 25th SOF will bring that as well.
This year will be the first time we gather in the center of Portorož, in a new location, in the new ambience of the Kempinski Hotel. Sometimes it’s necessary to make a change in order to write new stories and create new experiences. Last year my predecessor said: “We are trying to position SOF not only as a festival for the advertising profession, but as a festival of marketing overall.” This year we will continue Marija’s guideline because we want it to be a festival of creativity, not only in advertising, but also beyond. We want to reach a broader public with the changes we are making, so SOF will become a meeting place and an important place for the exchange of best practices – both creative and business. That’s what will make it important for advertising agencies, the media and advertisers, but also for the rest of the public.
This year will revolve around stories, because we strongly believe that a large part of every success is the messages, stories and content. But even a very good story cannot be successful on its own if it doesn’t have the correct media in terms of the narrator. A good storyteller knows how to tell the story in a way that makes it interesting, as well as when and to whom to tell it. But a storyteller must have a good story.
We have always needed stories, because through them we organize and hold an image of the world around us. We’ve been using stories for a very long time to convey a message to the person we are persuading, regardless of whether it’s someone close to us, or someone we don’t know who will hear our story from someone else, or our descendants who are not even born yet.
And if we transfer the story of the storyteller and the audience into the media, it’s easy to draw comparisons.
Often the problem is that most average stories, intended for customers and users, get lost in a crowd of lookalikes. Those for whom the messages are intended have become insensitive. They develop selective viewing, listening and reading in order to avoid stories they are not interested in. Or they simply turn on an adblock.
Since the time of the Egyptian traders the primary goal of advertising has been sales. It can accomplish that if we succeed in persuading the people who want to avoid our stories, regardless of the channel through which the stories reach them.
And yet, the essence is not in the channels, or media. Imagine how many stories are spreading through social media thanks only to the written word, maybe a single good photograph, despite the incredible progress of technology.
We must therefore ask ourselves whether our story is interesting enough to attract the masses, or at least those individuals that it really needs to attract. If not, then it’s time to write a new one.
Good stories should not be changed – because there’s a reason that they have remained among us for such a long time – and SOF began telling its own great story long ago, under the auspices of the Slovenian Chamber of Advertising, otherwise we wouldn’t be meeting together for the 25th time in April this year.
A charismatic and successful Slovenian businessman recently reaffirmed for me what I have believed for a long time now: that a successful business story needs personal relationships, that in the end we, people, “buy” people. Mingling at the Festival is one of its most important aspects because that’s how you weave stories, exchange practices and opinions in an informal atmosphere, where people become faces instead of names.
So come to Portorož on 7 and 8 April, to write another chapter of a success story.